tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61613682431891082272015-03-23T15:10:55.131-07:00PolitiFact BiasThe best evidences showing PolitiFact's liberal slant.Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.comBlogger459125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-61101738652549051352015-03-23T15:10:00.001-07:002015-03-23T15:10:55.160-07:00Fact checking the PolitiFact wayOkay, kids, today we're going to look at how to fact check the PolitiFact way. We'll look at how to tell whether President Obama's signature health care reform bill, known as the ACA or "Obamacare," was a job killer.
It's okay to leak your findings at the beginning of the fact check:
Predictions about the health care law were a dime a dozen back in 2010. Supporters contended that virtually Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-22796662335134999472015-03-15T17:24:00.000-07:002015-03-15T17:24:08.735-07:00More PolitiMath, featuring PunditFact and Jalen RossIn the past, we've pointed out the tendency at PolitiFact to make mistakes on basic math (and the tendency of Democrats to receive benefits from those mistakes).
Today PunditFact gave us another example, though this one they fixed pretty quickly when they learned something was amiss. Therefore our focus will fall not on the fact that a liberal, student Jalen Ross, gained the benefit from Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-52244319558335943512015-03-03T17:45:00.003-08:002015-03-03T17:45:55.107-08:00PolitiFact & Israel, thousand words editionThe left-wing bloggers at PolitiFact used Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's address to Congress to throw out more clickbait: Come see all our fact checks involving Israel!
We found their choice of photographs intriguing. After all, nothing says "objective and nonpartisan" like people with bloody hands wearing Netanyahu masks, right?
The image comes from PolitiFact's Facebook page.Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-89519707817117980872015-02-20T11:51:00.001-08:002015-02-25T18:58:59.228-08:00Hot Air: "PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year of 2014 falls apart only two months later"Noah Rothman of the conservative site Hot Air offers a reminder that PolitiFact's 2014 "Lie of the Year" was a train wreck:
Just about two months later, PolitiFact’s LOTY imploded.
“A team of prominent researchers suggested Thursday that limited airborne transmission of the Ebola virus is ‘very likely,’” The Washington Post reported on Thursday, “a hypothesis that could reignite the debate Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-59899499923975728882015-02-19T11:18:00.000-08:002015-02-19T11:19:33.650-08:00PolitiFact's latest survey on Rush LimbaughWe've long criticized PolitiFact's habit of presenting its "report cards" summing up its findings on political personalities and the like. Of course the report cards are non-scientific and should not be used to generalize about those personalities.
Yet PolitiFact continues to publish them. Apparently they can't resist throwing out this type of click bait.
Screen capture cropped from from Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-83362008854250555232015-02-19T10:39:00.001-08:002015-02-19T10:39:32.504-08:00Fifty shades of "Half True"PolitiFact's founding editor, Bill Adair, has said the truth is often not black and white, but gray:
Our Truth-O-Meter is based on the concept that the truth in politics is often not black and white, but shades of gray.
With this post we'll look at an example of PolitiFact shading the truth with its middle-ground "Half True" rating.
Justice Roy Moore, conservative: "Half True"
The first Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-36434382613587000402015-02-12T07:30:00.000-08:002015-02-12T21:29:03.075-08:00Courting the journo-lobbyistPolitiFact, the hapless fact checkers/liberal bloggers with whom we find fault almost daily, has a history going back to 2007 of inviting readers to steer their "independent" fact checking.
What should we check? Our story about the Obama chain e-mail was suggested by a PolitiFact reader. If you have a suggestion for facts or chain e-mails we should check, click here to email us.
We noted long Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-48006911001422776402015-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:002015-02-09T11:08:00.111-08:00Justin Katz: 'Friday Fun: “PolitiFact Can”'We've shared material from Rhode Island's Justin Katz with our readers before, but today we're honored to share Katz's parody of PolitiFact through the classic song "The Candyman."
This is just a teaser, so click on the link at the bottom to appreciate every tuneful word.
Who could take a true thing
Sprinkle it with spin
Cover it with context ’till the truth is wearing thin?
PolitiFact. Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-66929723265887751552015-02-03T17:57:00.002-08:002015-02-03T22:36:57.415-08:00PunditFact amends pundit's claim about amendmentsWe've pointed out before how PolitiFact will fault statements made on Twitter for lacking context despite the 140-character limit Twitter imposes.
This week PunditFact played that game with the following tweet from conservative pundit Phil Kerpen:
Amazing fact: Senate has already voted on more amendments in 2015 than Reid allowed ALL YEAR last year.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 23, 2015
Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-73522418942071731182015-01-30T10:18:00.002-08:002015-01-30T21:08:09.558-08:00PredictableThink we're exaggerating when we say PolitiFact's report cards encourage ill-founded conclusions? Read on, little camper:
Liberals and media critics have complained that Fox News has a habit of stretching the truth in its news and commentaries. Now they have some numbers to prove it.
The bloggers at AllGov, of course, have been misled by the liberal bloggers at PolitiFact. And from what we Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-22085933626620268502015-01-29T22:07:00.001-08:002015-01-30T21:07:17.003-08:00PunditFact officially less accurate than PolitiFactCareful research over the last tens of hours has convinced us that PunditFact reports less accurately than PolitiFact.
On Jan 27, 2015, PunditFact posted an article about an update for PunditFact's networks scorecards. PunditFact falsely reported that its scorecards check "all claims made by pundits on air." We noted that announcement with a post that same day, linking to an archived version of Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-54879290247222476582015-01-27T20:19:00.001-08:002015-01-28T20:23:16.878-08:00PunditFact: Our scorecards measure all claims made by pundits on airBless your heart, PunditFact.
Some people think PolitiFact's network scorecards can't be taken as a reliable litmus test of network truthfulness. After all, these skeptics say, PunditFact doesn't check every claim by every pundit on the networks.
But today PunditFact broke the news that it does check every claim on the networks (bold emphasis added):
MSNBC and CNN have improved ever so Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-27897242694726772552015-01-19T04:00:00.000-08:002015-01-19T08:42:49.473-08:00PunditFact's "Pants on Fire" bias, 2014We pledged to apply our "Pants on Fire" bias research methods to PolitiFact's "PunditFact" project.
PunditFact is the branch of PolitiFact that looks at and rates statements from pundits. PunditFact uses the same cheesy "Truth-O-Meter" system to which PolitiFact has wedded itself.
Our "Pants on Fire" research project looks at how PolitiFact disproportionately applies its "Pants on Fire" rating.Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-32125812067946426872015-01-11T05:30:00.000-08:002015-01-11T05:30:00.978-08:00SaintPetersBlog: Reporters Are More Expensive Than HookersNoted Florida blogger Peter Schorsch wrote a great post regarding PolitiFact's deeply flawed Kickstarter campaign. Schorcsh brings up a few excellent points we missed in our critique, but here's our favorite:
Seriously, $15,000 for PolitiFact to do its job? Not some sort of in-depth, special investigation, but to cover a political event readers probably expected them to cover.
Don’t get me Jeff D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16256347579300904884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-44977963340422953882015-01-06T04:47:00.000-08:002015-01-06T08:51:43.539-08:00The "pick what we fact check" updateAs Jeff D. noted in a post last week, PolitiFact has started a fundraising campaign at Kickstarter to pay for live fact-checking of the State of the Union address and response.
Jeff focused one of the perks for giving $100 or more: PolitiFact says it will give people who give at or above that level the privilege of picking what they fact check. Jeff pointed out that the offer places PolitiFact Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-51637461119832621162015-01-02T13:12:00.000-08:002015-01-06T06:00:46.529-08:00PolitiPimp: PolitiFact Kickstarter sells Journalism for Cash
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled, Love that's only slightly soiled,
Old love, new love, every love but true love,
Love for sale
-Ella Fitzgerald
This week PolitiFact announced it had created a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds in order to cover the State of the Union address. For those Jeff D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16256347579300904884noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-19462168358092529832015-01-02T10:02:00.001-08:002015-01-02T12:41:10.661-08:00PolitiFact still biased after all these yearsIt's time for the annual update to our ongoing research project measuring PolitiFact's bias in its application of "Pants on Fire" ratings.
In spite of its frequent publication and pimping of "report cards" showing how various persons and organizations rate on its trademarked "Truth-O-Meter," PolitiFact openly admits that its process for choosing which claims to rate is not scientific. PolitiFactBryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-45813291294837174732014-12-25T06:59:00.001-08:002014-12-25T21:56:07.278-08:00Thanks!We thank the excellent blog Legal Insurrection for making "2014: Another year, another laughable Lie of the Year" "Post of the Day" for Dec. 25, 2014.
What a nice present!
Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-42538881072445260862014-12-24T15:14:00.001-08:002014-12-25T11:21:49.645-08:00PolitiFact editor explains the difference between "False" and "Pants on Fire"During an interview for a "DeCodeDC" podcast, PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan explained to listeners the difference between the Truth-O-Meter ratings "False" and "Pants on Fire":
Our transcript of the relevant portion of the podcast follows, picking up with the host asking why President Barack Obama's denial of a change of position on immigration wasn't rated more harshly (bold emphasisBryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-61595934963805731652014-12-22T23:43:00.001-08:002014-12-24T09:03:26.713-08:00Mailbag meets windbagPolitiFact published a "Lie of the Year" edition of its "Mailbag" feature on Dec. 22, 2014. Criticism by Hot Air's Noah Rothman drew immediate mention:
Noah C. Rothman at the conservative blog Hot Air took issue with our Lie of the Year choice.
"Some of these assertions (that collectively earned the Lie of the Year) were misleading, but PolitiFact’s central thesis – ‘when combined, the claimsBryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-728553475721864082014-12-17T00:52:00.000-08:002014-12-24T09:03:51.298-08:00Commentary: 'PolitiFact’s Ebola Distortions'Seth Mandel has another deft dissection of PolitiFact's 2014 "Lie of the Year" up at Commentary:
Different statements being grouped together into one “lie”–especially when they’re not lies, even if they’re mistaken–will not do wonders for PolitiFact’s already rock-bottom credibility. But in fact it’s really worse than that. Here’s PolitiFact’s explanation for their choice of “Lie of the YearBryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-3507446951088507602014-12-16T15:23:00.002-08:002015-03-15T19:44:31.413-07:00Lost letters: Apology Tour editionWe love getting reader feedback on our posts. And we're much more likely to respond to criticism than is PolitiFact. We found this bit of feedback very recently posted to a message board after somebody mentioned how PolitiFact found claims about an Obama "apology tour" false:
How cute, some nut's blog claiming that conservative-leaning Politifact is biased in favor of Obama. And claims that Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-45821587218160078612014-12-16T08:19:00.000-08:002015-02-20T11:52:48.025-08:002014: Another year, another laughable Lie of the YearIt's time for our annual criticism of PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" award!
Leading off in a bipartisan spirit, let's note that every single one of PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" award winners have contained some nugget of truth. This year, PolitiFact decisively elected to give the award to many quite different claims, each having something to do with the Ebola virus.
There's nothing like the Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-21040819229971778122014-12-14T13:20:00.000-08:002014-12-24T09:04:18.517-08:00PolitiFact poised to pick 2014 "Lie of the Year"It's time for PolitiFact's "Lie of the Year" nonsense again, where the supposedly nonpartisan fact checkers set aside objectivity even more blatantly than usual to offer their opinion on the year's most significant political falsehood.
We'll first note a change from years past, as PolitiFact abandons its traditional presentation of the candidates accompanied by their corresponding "Truth-O-MeterBryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6161368243189108227.post-77180417356576176122014-12-09T05:44:00.000-08:002014-12-10T20:32:09.141-08:00PolitiFact's coin flipsWe've often highlighted the apparent non-objective standards PolitiFact uses to justify its "Truth-O-Meter" ratings. John Kroll, a former staffer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, PolitiFact's former partner with PolitiFact Ohio, said the choice between one rating and another was often difficult and said the decisions amounted to "coin flips" much of the time.
Heads the liberal wins, tails the Bryan Whitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07608604859044029293noreply@blogger.com0